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Hard to get outraged when we’ve so clearly lost the war against billionaires and the consequences of the practices that get them there. Like industrial farming
by demondemidi 3y ago
Hard to get outraged when we’ve so clearly lost the war against billionaires and the consequences of the practices that get them there. Like industrial farming that needs to use a billion tons of plastic to increase profits by decreasing costs. And predatory practices deployed on small independent farms that act responsibly.
- morkalork 3y agoFeels like we've just been free falling through trap door functions continuously for years. They've acquired too much wealth and can buy power through lobbyists, corporate personhood, money is "free speech", and lately just flat out bankrolling the lavish lifestyle of a supreme court judge. Good luck undoing all that!
- Ericson2314 3y agoPastoralism is brain rot, we should not romanticize "small farms". The romanticization of farming probably has a lot to do with bad agricultural policy. (In the US we can blame the senate, but what about in Europe?) Also, are there any agricultural billionaires? I kind of doubt it: usually they are rich but not that rich.
- hosh 3y agoIt doesn’t have to be romanticized. A local-first, decentralized food system can be more resilient and provide fresher, more nutritious foods.
- whimsicalism 3y agodoubt [0] 0: see Sri Lanka’s attempted shift to local, small scale agriculture and how that went.
- hosh 3y agoCounter example: Cuba, during the sanctions.
- whimsicalism 3y agoCuba imports 80%+ of its food. It received extensive soviet industrial agriculture consults. It is not a counter example.
- hosh 3y agoI don’t know which era you are talking about. I was talking about the decade after 1989, about when the Soviets were collapsing, before the recent economic downturn. They were not importing food, nor were there oil available to run trucks, tractors or make fertilizer - https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/cubas-urban-farming-revolution-how-to-create-self-sufficient-cities https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/cubas-urban-farm...
- whimsicalism 3y agoCubans were literally starving and caloric intake is estimate to have been reduced by 38% in the period you are talking about before food imports resurged. [0] Another great example case, thank you for pointing that out. 0: https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/static/oa4/OA-CubaGoingAgainstGrain_FoodCrisis.pdf https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/static/oa4/OA-CubaGoingAga...
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- misthop 3y agoWould you count Cargill[0]? Cause they are privately held, all in on the farming world, and have net income in the billions annually [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill
- whimsicalism 3y agoIn my view that absolutely counts and multiple members of the family are billionaires.
- Ericson2314 3y agoah good point. Screw em; nationalize it.
- randomdata 3y ago> Also, are there any agricultural billionaires? Many. But maybe you mean only those getting their hands dirty in the field? Howard Buffet, perhaps. Some sources claim he is a billionaire.
- whimsicalism 3y agoIndustrial farms, a key part of the green revolution, are what enable us to support our population of 8 or so billion and prevent them from starving.
- adrian_b 3y agoAnd why is it desirable to have a population of 8 billion that needs such farms for survival, instead of having a stable population of 1 billion that could be sustained by more future-proof agricultural techniques?
- whimsicalism 3y agoFeel free to volunteer to not have children and spread the word to your family and friends. I find most people who espouse your views typically don’t because the people they are always imagining dying/killing/banning from having babies are usually in the third-world, or at least very far away. They don’t imagine the very real killing, wars, etc. that would have to take place to forcibly sterilize people. I don’t think organic agriculture is such an important end that we should render 7/8 of the population dead or infertile so that we can transition to organic.
- silverquiet 3y ago> Feel free to volunteer to not have children and spread the word to your family and friends. Given the precipitous drops in fertility in the developed world, I'd say that this is happening.
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoThe people who are having children are those that happen to be the biggest polluters: Africa, India, and China(birth rates are collapsing here but not fast enough). The greenest people are north Americans (excluding Mexico) and Europe. They just so happen to not have any kids. The solution is to put the economic burden of pollution onto those that cause it the most and right now the biggest burdens are on western states who do the most already to greenify their economies. And don't post the innane," they're poor and need to burn coal to get ahead!". India is the worst offender with dumping plastic in the ocean. China is even worse with industrial pollutants destroying what good land they had. The 3rd world needs to be brought to heel if climate change is to be stopped.